Tour de France: Why Wiggins won't get a clean break

Leading the pack: Bradley Wiggins is almost two minutes ahead of the field in the Tour de France classification (Image: AFP)

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When Bradley Wiggins launched into a furious tirade at a press conference this week, it is important to note he was attacking lazy rumourmongers on Twitter, not the impertinence of someone asking him a question about drugs in cycling.

Presuming Wiggins is clean, it is easy to understand the righteous indignation of a rider who may be about to become Britain's first ever Tour de France winner.

But that's the issue. After all the problems cycling has faced, the way the Tour has been defaced by positive tests, no one presumes anyone is clean any more.

To do so, sadly, would be reckless. Even yesterday, a French rider from the Cofidis team was arrested in connection with an alleged case of doping.

And in the States, a judge dismissed a lawsuit by seventime Tour winner Lance Armstrong against the US Anti-Doping Agency.

That followed suggestions last month that 10 former team-mates would testify against Armstrong following accusations he used performance-enhancing drugs.

In cycling's defence, testing in the sport is rigorous and relentless and punishments are severe.

They are doing their best to root out cheats and turn the image of cycling and its headline event around.

Everyone wants Wiggins to be clean. But that's no insurance policy. Everyone wanted Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador to be clean, too.

In one form or another, Wiggins will have to keep facing the questions. And if his form in press conferences holds, reporters will have to keep hitting the asterisk key.